Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri's new novel is very novel

'Whereabouts' is Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel since 'The Lowland' (2013). It is also her first novel written in Italian and translated into English by Lahiri herself. Photo: Handout

Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri is back with what is sure to be one of the more unique "novels” of the year.

Readers can debate in book clubs whether it’s a novel in the traditional sense, but it sure is novel in the original sense. Written in Italian and then translated by the author into English, Whereabouts features an anonymous first-person narrator who reveals tiny slices of her life in the course of 46 very short chapters with names like At The Station, On My Couch and In My Head.